Wireless Access Speed???

[iSaint]

I have a D-Link cable modem, with an Airport Express providing my wireless access. iBook, 1.0G, 768 RAM, all updates current - even OS X 10.3.9. I question my access speed and feel it could be much better. Also, the Airport Express seems to drop the access at times, and restarting the AE through Airport Admin Utility will give the access back.

I went to a coffee shop that has wireless last night. They also have service through the same cable company as I do. I had started to download the 10.3.9 update at home with about 10k per minute max. When I connected to the coffee shop's wireless, I downloaded at who knows what speed, but it was about a MB every 10-20 seconds. 10.3.9 was downloaded in no time.

I would tend to believe that the wireless company is paying much more per month for cable service than I am at $50 per month. But I have a real hard time believing there is that much difference in service.

Is there any tweaking to my setup that anyone can recommend? I'm more computer literate than many people, but not at brilliant as the Macrumors member Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have talked to their service and support, this company who are very friendly, but see nothing wrong with my setup.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Gee]

The speed of your wireless network shouldn't make any difference to the speed you can download stuff. The airport extreme works at a max rate of either 11 or 54 megabits per second. Even at the lower of these two, and assuming your connection is only getting half of the maximum speed, that's still 5.5 megabits per second. In contrast, a standard broadband connection (i.e. the bit up to when it arrives at your modem), is usually 0.5, 1, or 2 megabits per second maximum.

Unless there's something seriously wrong with your basestation, your wireless connection will not be the rate-limiting step on your download speed. It's more likely that the coffee shop has a more expensive, faster, broadband link than you.

 

[Passante]

I see the same thing when I use my laptop at work. Not only is the download bandwidth larger but upload in also greater. I have DSL which has upload speeds half to a quarter of download.

It also makes sense for a public spot that will share one connection with many users to have a much faster connection than typical residential internet connections.

 

[iSaint]

It also makes sense for a public spot that will share one connection with many users to have a much faster connection than typical residential internet connections.

I kind of figured this to be true, but you would think if I'm paying $50 a month and the coffee shop (it's real small) is paying $600 a month, they would be able to offer me some kind of comparable speed for individual use.

Plus the fact that I indicated that I have to restart my Airport Express sometimes to keep my connection active. Other times I do a complete system reset: power down everything > plug cable modem in and wait for status light to become active > plug AE in > power up iBook > run Aiport Setup Assistant to create new network

I was just curious if there's any tweaking I could do to my setup to ensure the best active connection.

thanks for the input so far...

 

[mad jew]

I'm running with two AirPort Express units and they never :::touches wood::: drop out - not once after a solid eight months of pretty heavy use. I'd take the AirPort back to Apple to see if they think there's a problem with it. That's assuming it's still under warranty.

 

[Gee]

I'm running with two AirPort Express units and they never :::touches wood::: drop out - not once after a solid eight months of pretty heavy use. I'd take the AirPort back to Apple to see if they think there's a problem with it. That's assuming it's still under warranty.

I agree. However, before you do that, you try changing the channel on your airport - it might be that you're getting interference which is causing your dropouts. You can select a channel in airport setup utility thing. See if that helps. Otherwise, take it back and get a new one.

 

[iSaint]

I agree. However, before you do that, you try changing the channel on your airport - it might be that you're getting interference which is causing your dropouts. You can select a channel in airport setup utility thing. See if that helps. Otherwise, take it back and get a new one.

Wow, funny thing...that seemed to have helped! I'm going to keep it that way a few days and see if it helps. thanks!

 

[Gee]

Wow, funny thing...that seemed to have helped! I'm going to keep it that way a few days and see if it helps. thanks!

Cool. Keep us posted...

 

[iSaint]

extreme bump

I'm bumping my own thread to say I broke down and bought a new Linksys cable modem, and the speed is unbelievable. Old DLink apparently needed replacing. See speed samples attached:

 

[TheMonarch]

Hmm... I'm unimpressed with my speed, seems I'm only getting 2.1 mbps (out of 3)... But then again, I was using AirTunes, so whatever... Oh and I only pay $40 (without the promotion [$19 for first year]) a month for "3Mbps" DSL, I suggest shopping around.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I just got the Linksys WCG200 and it gets better reception than I did with my Toshiba with the AEX.

My only problem is trying to change the SSID and getting WEP setup. Asked here, but no one has offered any help. May have to breakdown and spend time on hold with Linksys.

 

[mad jew]

My AirPort widget (Air Traffic Control) is saying I'm getting about 19% reception which is pretty lame yet I still manage about 8Mbps so I really don't think reception has all that much to do with internet speed.

 

[TheMonarch]

My AirPort widget (Air Traffic Control) is saying I'm getting about 19% reception which is pretty lame yet I still manage about 8Mbps so I really don't think reception has all that much to do with internet speed.

WOW! How much do you pay? I wish I had your speed...

 

[MacTruck]

My AirPort widget (Air Traffic Control) is saying I'm getting about 19% reception which is pretty lame yet I still manage about 8Mbps so I really don't think reception has all that much to do with internet speed.

Just went to that site and tested mine. Got 3786 down. Thats a cool site.

 

[TheMonarch]

I just tried my speed on that site, I did better there, this time with Airtunes on...

 

[mad jew]

WOW! How much do you pay? I wish I had your speed...

It's about AU$50 per month which is about US$35. It's called ADSL2+ and it's rated at 24Mbps but it doesn't really get close all that often.

It averages about 2MBps whatever that is in Mbps.